diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index d81ef87f8..dee14bf07 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -8790,7 +8790,7 @@ void Tokenizer::simplifyBitfields()
                    tok->next()->str() != "default") {
             const bool offset = (tok->next()->str() == "const");
 
-            if (tok->strAt(3 + (offset ? 1 : 0)) != "{") {
+            if (!Token::Match(tok->tokAt(3 + (offset ? 1 : 0)), "[{};]")) {
                 tok->deleteNext(4 + (offset ? 1 : 0));
                 goback = true;
             }
diff --git a/test/testtokenize.cpp b/test/testtokenize.cpp
index 20f1af0c4..2fdde1c3a 100644
--- a/test/testtokenize.cpp
+++ b/test/testtokenize.cpp
@@ -419,6 +419,7 @@ private:
         TEST_CASE(bitfields11); // ticket #2845 (segmentation fault)
         TEST_CASE(bitfields12); // ticket #3485 (segmentation fault)
         TEST_CASE(bitfields13); // ticket #3502 (segmentation fault)
+        TEST_CASE(bitfields14); // ticket #4561 (segfault for 'class a { signals: };')
 
         TEST_CASE(simplifyNamespaceStd);
 
@@ -6846,6 +6847,11 @@ private:
         ASSERT_EQUALS("x y ;", tokenizeAndStringify("struct{x y:};\n",false));
     }
 
+    void bitfields14() { // #4561 - crash for 'signals:'
+        ASSERT_EQUALS("class x { signals : } ;", tokenizeAndStringify("class x { signals: };\n",false));
+    }
+
+
     void simplifyNamespaceStd() {
         static const char code1[] = "map<foo, bar> m;"; // namespace std is not used
         ASSERT_EQUALS("map < foo , bar > m ;", tokenizeAndStringify(code1, false));